Council tax bills cut for millions of Londoners

Monday 2 November 2009 09:03 BST

Londoners face lower bills as Town Halls look to reduce rates in election year

Town halls across London are in a race to freeze or cut council tax bills next year.

Millions of Londoners stand to benefit as Labour, Conservative and Lib-Dem authorities compete to keep demands down in the run-up to the general election. Labour stole a march by announcing that its eight councils in the capital would impose a freeze.

But Tory-controlled Hammersmith and Fulham upped the stakes today by promising to reduce bills by three per cent in April, for the fourth year running.

"There is no doubt that London councils are locked in a race to bring down council tax," said Tony Travers, a local government expert at the London School of Economics.

"There's a fair chance that the majority of councils will cut or freeze. This is unprecedented, nothing like this has every happened before during the life of the council tax."

More than half of the 33 London councils are now on course to avoid an increase in bills, say experts. The tax may also be frozen in boroughs where local elections will be held.

Labour-run Lambeth, Lewisham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Newham, Barking and Dagenham, Greenwich and Haringey will see an absolute freeze in the council tax for 2010-11. Hackney is due to become the first authority to freeze the levy for the fifth year running.

Tory-run Westminster, Wandsworth and Kensington & Chelsea are expected to cut or freeze their council tax demands while Barnet is adopting a no-frills approach, with local residents being asked to pay more for faster or better services in some areas.

Liberal Democrat insiders say the party's councils in Islington, Brent and Southwark were likely to have no rises.

Boris Johnson has also promised not to increase the Greater London Authority element of the council tax. Hammersmith and Fulham is seen by many MPs as a model which David Cameron will use to reduce the costs of central government. "We have saved £42 million by cutting waste and bureaucracy," said its leader Stephen Greenhalgh.

But Tory critics say council tax is being kept down or lowered by introducing new charges, privatising services and cutting jobs.

Stephen Cowan, leader of the Labour group on Hammersmith and Fulham, accused the Conservatives of imposing more than 500 "new or increased stealth taxes" in three years.